Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Vacation or Retirement?

In my last Nuclear Green post I pointed to a problem which I lacked the capacity to explore. I did not elaborate in that previous post, but my reasons have to do with the health and vision problems I have been struggling with for some time. I also feel that the work that I once performed on Nuclear Green, has mow been taken over by others, who are better qualified than I am to carry it forward. When I first began writing about energy issues in 2007, the Molten Salt Reactor and thorium were virtually unknown. Kirk Sorensen had launched his crusade, and the the discussion on EnergyfromThorium was just beginning. I joined the discussion during the Summer of 2006, and as I recall, I was the 33 member of the discussion.

Of course my knowledge of the Molten Salt Reactor goes back many years. My father, Dr. C.J. Barton, Sr., was a Molten Salt Reactor pioneer, who started working on Molten Salt fuel and coolant
formulas in 1950. Later my father worked on the development of molten salt breeder technology. Studying documents in Kirks archive, gave me a chance to explore my father's Oak Ridge career.

The MSR/LFTR has acomplished a lot in the 6 years that have passed since I joined it. I have tried to mention the names of some of the remarkable people who have participated in the movement. but there are many more who have made significant contributions.

I did not originate most of the ideas I have talked about in Nuclear Green. Many bof those ideas were not well known when I started to write about them in 2007, but the are well known now/ Such is the power of the Internet to propagate information. Others who are better qualified than are I am are now writing about my signature topics

I am 71 years olkd. I have tried to warn young [eople of mistakes that members of my generation, are trying to lead them into. It is time that figures like Ralph Nader and Amery Lovins should retire and maybe it is time for me to retire as well, at least as an energy blogger.

I am not going to announce my retirement. In the past, from time to time, I thought that I had reached the retirement point, only to find myself back at work on a Nuclear Green post a few days later. Maybe this is only a vacation. Time will tell.

3 comments:

Figures like Ralph Nader and Amory Lovins should not only retire; they should publicly apologize for the millions of people they have killed over the last forty years with their charlatanism.

How many millions of tons (billions?) of coal have been burned that would not have been, had nuclear reactor construction continued at the 70s pace? How many cases of lung disease and cancer have they caused to pump up their egos and keep the money flowing into their pockets?

No, retirement is the least that Nader and Lovins deserve. If there was any justice, they'd be in a deep dark cell for fraud and relentlessly reviled for the human suffering they have caused and extended.

True, your technical expertise rests on the views of others, but your political synthesis and your exposure of faux greens is unique and extremely valuable. The nuclear vs. anti- struggle makes Shakespearean themes pale in comparison. The earth's ecosystem is endangered; there are economic entities that have an interest in destroying it via burning all the fossil fuels they can bring to market; these entities preferentially select sociopaths to run them (the same people who funded the Swift Boat liars against John Kerry are the Natural Gas bubble makers and frauds who are undermining nuclear energy in the US and funding the anti-nuclear hysterics and faux Greens). Your voice is needed and would be missed. Not "will be" as I suspect you will find a second wind.